


Just a Nightmare

by tenebris_ash



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Gen, I am expanding on that, IronDad and SpiderSon, Temporary Character Death, infinity wars and endgame was just a bad dream, sorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-02-29 10:27:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18776410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tenebris_ash/pseuds/tenebris_ash
Summary: 'What was happening? 'Thought Peter as he shot webs upon webs to reach the giant donut spaceship that was situated above the central park.'Is this a nightmare?'He wondered as he looked into da-Tony'seyes, expressing all his pain, gratitute and love through eyes alone, till his eyes were no more, along with his whole body.He had turned into ashes, a little by little. His last words hung heavily in the silence. Not that he was present there to experience it, to watch a devastated Tony gripping his ashes."I am sorry"The last thing Peter remembered was going to sleep in his bed. So he wondered how he got into the bus taking him to a school trip that wasn't to be scheduled for another year or so.





	Just a Nightmare

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya fellas! I know I have one unfinished fic to write and I _am_ writing it, but this plot bunny just took hold of me and didn't let go. 
> 
> Remember when I'd told you that infinity wars and endgame was just a nightmare for me. Yeah, apparently it was a nightmare for Peter too.

 

"Peter"

"Ugh let me sleep"

"Peter Peter Peter Peter" A voice which was decidedly  _not_ Aunt May chanted annoyingly in his ears.

"Ungh wah" was his oh-so eloquent answer. 

"Petey Pete wakey wakey-  _come on_ Peter, you can't seriously be sleeping during the trip we practically spent  _days_ jumping about" said that annoying voice again.

In the end, it wasn't the irritating voice or that unceasing chatter that woke him up, it was the road bump that shook him from his awkward position that would've cramped him if he hadn't had the flexibility being spiderman gave him.

He opened his eyes with a groan and-

_What the-_

 -looked straight out of a bus window-  _a moving bus window -_ and decided that it far was too early for him to deal with this shit.

The last thing he remembered before waking up was going to sleep in his room after a particularly tiring patrol. No, wait. The last thing he remembered was joking with Ned before he dozed off in his seat on the bus to MOMA- their final year school trip.

What. The. Actual.  _Hell._

No, he was definitely  _not_ in his final year. He would know. He would  _remember._ Wouldn't he? 

But he remembered. He  _was_ in his final year of high school and at the same time..... he wasn't? 

Don't ask him, his head hurt from thinking too much about his muddled memories. It seemed that he had two different set of memories. One felt as if he had lived it. The other felt more like a movie unfolding before his eyes.

Again, what the  _hell_ was this.

 "Hey loser, If you don't wake up now, then I'm gonna automatically assume that you have volunteered to dress up as a drag queen in the end of year talent show" MJ informed him without taking her eyes off her novel.

 "NO! I'm up I'm up" Peter shrieked, horrified at the possibility of dressing up in drag and dancing in front of his classmates.

"Well,  _damn."_ MJ said tonelessly while Ned guffawed.

"We are going to have soo much fun!" Ned exclaimed excitedly.

Even MJ looked slightly excited, which was saying a lot, since MJ did  _not_ do emotions.

Peter would have said something in return but his spidey sense chose that particular moment to blare annoyingly . All his instincts screamed  **danger.** He looked down on his hands at the windowsill to see goosebumps. 

He looked out of the window and his eyes widened at the  _humongous_ donut shaped spaceship floating right above Central Park.

His words died in his throat.

"Ned, distract everybody." He said instead.

 Ned opened his mouth to ask why, but then he saw Peter's expression and decided that his curiosity could wait. There was a reason Ned was the Guy in the Chair.  He acted first, and acted questions later. So he unquestioningly set to work. His preferred choice of distraction was screaming loudly and pointing to the giant metal donut hanging right above the central park.

The moment everybody noticed the anomaly, pandemonium broke out all over the bus. Everybody was terrified of another alien invasion. And amidst this chaos, Peter Parker slipped out, shooting webs and wearing his spider-suit on his way. 

* * *

 

Even while fighting those ugly aliens, Peter couldn't help but wonder if this was real. He was seriously freaking out, but there was no outward indication to his panic attack. He didn't have any control over his actions, but at the same time, he did? 

Most of the stunts he did seemed unfamiliar, but his muscles moved as if he had been practicing those moves for a long , long time. Everything was too surreal. A part of his mind felt as if he was watching a movie, except he was  _performing_ in the movie and every pain, every emotion, felt real. 

'What was happening?' He thought not for the first time since waking up, as he webbed into the donut spaceship that was taking off to space. Real or not, he wasn't going to abandon Tony like that.

* * *

 

Everything had gone wrong. They were so doomed. Thanos had finally won. And to make matters worse, he wasn't feeling so good. Tony had been stabbed and sported multiple wounds. Mr. Footloose had slipped. But he couldn't fault him for that. If the same thing had happened to Peter, then he , too , would've lost control.

He wondered if his friends were alright. Oh  _god_ , what about May, Happy, Pepper, MJ, Ned, Rhodey and so many others? He would never forgive himself if any of them were harmed. And did he mention that he  _wasn't feeling good?_  

Why did it feel as if all the atoms and molecules in his body were suddenly coming loose? 'Maybe because they  _were_ turning loose' he thought as he witnessed Miss Cool Antennas (Mantis?) And Mr Footloose turning into ash which then drifted into the wind.

He stumbled and fell into Tony's arms in a parody of a hug, clutching him tightly as if he , too , would drift away like others.

"Mr. Stark, I don't wanna go" He pleaded. He couldn't leave everybody, he didn't want to die. He wanted to complete school and go to college and save people and spend time with Tony, Pepper, MJ, May, Happy and Ned. He wanted to live his life.

A pity, then, that it wasn't his choice to make. 

'Was it a nightmare?' Thought Peter as he looked into the eyes of his only surviving father figure. He could read the desperation and apology written in them. But why should Tony apologize? The fault lay somewhere else. Peter's failure was his own doom.

"I am sorry" his last words drifted in the wind along with the ash that had once been Peter. He was long gone, or he'd had heard Tony's cries of desperation and heart break.

* * *

 

He woke up, to once again face his nightmare. Everything was vivid. Tony's face as he pleaded him to stay. His helplessness as he slowly drifted into blankness of the void, quite literally. Logically, he knew that it was immature and childish to feel disappointed that Tony wasn't there when he woke up. He had, afterall, gone to sleep in his bed. Then why did his bed feel so hard and rocky? 

He looked up to see an orange sky. His comerades had already woken up. Dr. Strange was busy gathering everybody. So that meant that he was still in Titan. But  _why?_  

'Time to act, let's think later' Peter thought as he stepped through the Portal ( a  _portal!_ )to earth. He had walked from one battlefield to another battlefield. Except that this warzone was actually on earth and not on some unknown, uninhabited, rocky planet.

It was a glorified game of rugby. There was no other name for it. Both the teams wanted the gauntlet and both of them were willing to fight dirty. He ran and ran and ran, dodging the fire that seemed to rain from the heavens  ('but was actually coming from the Purple grape's spaceships' his ever logical brain supplied). He had already activated instant kill mode. Anybody who faught him was an enemy. He faught and ducked and slashed and webbed, but in the end he was horribly outnumbered. 

His salvation came in the form of all the female super heroes (heroines? ). He almost pitied the aliens who dared cross those powerful women. Almost. He was just mostly vindicated and awed. He ducked and kicked an alien, and managed to behead it in one punch. Gross. Right, one down, a million more to go.

* * *

 

 _No no no no nooo._ This couldn't be happening. Tony couldn't die. Not when he himself had just come back to life. Why were the fates so cruel? Couldn't they let him have  _one_ father figure in his life. Why must everybody dear to him die? 

* * *

 

He stood in numb horror as Tony's casket was lowered into the ground. He tried to imagine a world without Tony Stark and came up blank. A world without Tony felt like a bleak and joyless world. He looked at Pepper, standing tall and straight. But he could see her grief. Tony's death broke her. Even with all her promise to live, he could see how lifeless she felt. 

Morgan Stark. Tony's daughter. So much had changed in the five years that he had been gone. And at the same time, nothing had changed. 

Tony had lived a happy life in those five years. He had the family he had always craved for. And yet he had sacrificed that life for all those people like Peter.

Tony deserved better. They  _all_ deserved better. Peter had tried to understand what had happened in the years that he was gone. What exactly had happened. He had thrown himself into his studies, he had hounded all the avengers for the details of what had happened. He had talked and shared. Their grief was palpable. Where people celebrated the homecoming of their lost loved ones, Peter and the other heroes had mourned.  _That_ was what being a hero was about.

A hero didn't just fight for the weak, a hero mourned the fallen while the world celebrated. Heroes remembered the loss, their comerades lost to a victory or to a faliure, and they accepted their role with a solemn face. 

Meeting May and his friends had taken a huge load off his chest. His heart was hollow, but at least his shoulders weren't hunched from the burden of watching his loved ones move on (and away) from him. Five years was a long time afterall.

* * *

 

 

Peter didn't know why he felt the need to know everything that had happened. He didn't know why every small detail felt so important to know. Why was it necessary to know the date of 'The Snap' - as the media had taken to calling it? Why was it necessary to know all the details about Asgard's Ragnarok? Especially when it hurt Thor so much to even remember it. Why did he want to know every single thing about Thanos? He wasn't coming back ever again. Why was knowing all about the infinity stones so imperative, when they had been all but destroyed already?

Peter didn't know the answer to these questions. All he knew was that knowing it all was important- and urgent. Maybe it would bring him some closure? Maybe it was his way of coping with the loss of another father figure? 

He was so tired of everything. The hole in his heart felt like a gaping wound. Maybe he should just sleep for a while. He could complete those blue prints later. It wasn't as if they were needed tomorrow.

Peter closed his eyes. And something about this felt final. But he didn't have the energy to wonder why. He gave in to the blackness that was eating away at his vision.  (Yeah, working for 45 hours without sleep did that. Go figure.)

* * *

 

Peter woke up with a light heart. Well, how surprising. He hadn't felt that well rested since Tony- no, don't think about that.

Everything felt different. Sharper, clearer. It felt like waking from a long dream. His phone rang.

Wait, that wasn't his ringtone. Maybe Morgan changed it, again. He shrugged and picked up the call. And promptly froze after hearing a voice he'd never thought of hearing again. 

"Underoos? You alright?"

 Was this a joke? He checked the calender. The date was of the day he had gone to sleep. It was a day he had lived two (seven?) Years back. It was the day he should've woken up to a long while ago. 

So was that all a nightmare? Then why was it so vivid?

"Underoos? Karen's telling me that your heart rate has reached dangerous levels. What are you doing? Nothing unsafe, I hope" Tony tried to joke, but his concern made that impossible.

"I need to talk with you, right now, face to face" Peter said robotically.

"I'm coming there. ETA 5 minutes. Keep your windows open." Tony's voice was muffled. 

Those five minutes were probably the longest in Peter's life. He was quite sure that he wasn't dreaming. Unlike last time, when everything felt like a movie, his mind felt sharper and unrestricted.  __

* * *

 

Tony's repulsers made little noise as he flew into Peter's room. The kid was worrying him. Something was  _really_ wrong. No sooner had he retracted from the suit, he was met with an armful of Peter.

"You made me come from the Stark Tower at 8 in the morning just because you wanted a hug?" He raised an eyebrow. He may be joking but Peter's behaviour was concerning. 

"What happened?" Tony was surprised and more than a little bewildered when he saw tears in Peter's eyes.

" Nightmare?" He asked gently.

"No, it wasn't a nightmare.

It was the future." Peter said solemnly.

He listened to Peter, every detail and every situation. And what he heard chilled him to his bone. 

"It's the future. Not just a nightmare." Peter repeated. And Tony believed him.

* * *

 

"What should we do now?"

"We have time. And we have the chance. The rest will fall into place."

* * *

 

"Don't - don't leave me again"

"No, I won't "

* * *

 Far away, in a different reality, a thirty four year old Peter Parker smiled. Tony Stark may have died in his reality, but that didn't mean that Morgan Stark had to grow up without her father (or Peter Parker had to lose his father figure) in every other reality.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So... how was it? Tell me in the comments. This was my closure for endgame and infinity wars. I hope that tis is a closure for you too.


End file.
